The Remembrance of Chaos (PJO)

Chapter 6

"Chaos?" Artemis asked quizzically. "Who is that?"

Percy sighed; on second thought, he should have explained his plan a little bit better than just "Chaos".

"End told me he is the Creator of the universe," Percy replied.

"How will he help?"

"He's the enemy of End—also her brother, and I know him."

Artemis gave him a questioning glance. "If you lost your memory, how do you know him?"

"Maybe I should explain better."

"Yes, please do."

"Sometimes, in my dreams, I get to talk with him."

"How do you know who it is? After all, it could be some random person."

"I just have this . . . instinctual feeling."

"Okay, what is your plan concerning him?"

"I am certain he would give back our memories, and there's no way he can't since he is the Creator."

"Great!" Artemis exclaimed. "How are we going to meet him?"

Percy was taken aback; he had not made it that far in planning. "Er . . . I'm still working out the details."

Artemis narrowed her eyes. "Does he even know who took us?"

"Not exactly."

"How many times have you met him again?"

"About a dozen," Percy admitted.

"A dozen?!" She exclaimed. "How in the world did you not tell him?"

"I couldn't talk to him . . . but in a few days I could definitely piece him in with hand gestures."

"We don't have that kind of time! We are this close," Artemis put her thumb and forefinger inches apart from each other. "This close to getting busted!"

"Surely not that close . . . "

"How long before another event like this morning happens?" 

Percy had to admit she was right. Heck, somebody could even be listening to this conversation. He didn't know what to do: should he run away with Artemis, and try to find Chaos, or should they try their luck?

The first option was very tempting, since it would take out most of the risk. Only, it would guarantee to End that they had figured out they had been brainwashed, and she would surely try to hunt them down. Plus, they then had to disguise themselves, and would have to move almost always. It would be dangerous, arduous, and treacherous, while also being exhilarating, fun, and maybe even strengthen their friendship with one another.

Whereas, the second option was not much better. They would be trapped in the castle, impatiently waiting for Chaos to piece their location together. This choice would be a game of cat and mice: End trying to find irrefragable evidence against them, and Percy and Artemis pretending to not know anything. It would be stressful, tiring and demanding.

Both choices would be very difficult; one mistake, and they would be dead. Furthermore, it was not a choice he could take alone. After all, he had a teammate. A psycho-maniac-hyper-insane teammate.

"We have two choices," Percy informed Artemis. "Stay here, and communicate with Chaos—while also treading very carefully, or, we could run away and find Chaos ourselves. The second option would immediately tell End—"

"The second option," Artemis immediately said, not hesitating for even a fraction of a second. Percy sighed; he knew his adrenaline junkie, warrior of a teammate would choose the harder path.

"Think about it," Artemis argued. "If we get found out here, which is very close to being reality, we are trapped. Meanwhile, if we escape, we can still contact Chaos, while also trying to find him. It will be very dangerous, yes, but it's a better choice than just getting trapped. Plus, I'm immortal."

"I'm not!" Percy exclaimed. 

Artemis gave him an Are you serious? look and explained her thinking. "Why would End brainwash a mortal? It doesn't make sense. Mortals are useless, impracticable, fragile . . . "

Makes me feel better about myself, Percy glumly thought. All immortals had powers, and he did not have any. Even Artemis, who did not have any idea of her powers, could still feel them, even though most of them were blocked. Percy was just an empty vessel. A dark, really empty vessel

" . . . idle, impractical, stupid . . ."

"Okay, okay, I get it!" 

Artemis smirked, happy that she had irked Percy. "Plus, we could always test it out."

"What do you mean by that? Wait-get that away from me!" Artemis had whipped out her trusty stolen dagger and had advanced closer to Percy. "Stop! Okay-I believe you . . . stop!"

In a flash, Artemis had grasped Percy's arm tightly and raised her knife. Percy closed his eyes.

"If I live through this, I'm going to kill you Artemis! Percy thought furiously. As if she read his thought, she laughed. "You can open your eyes now." Her voice had a triumphant note to it.

When Percy opened his eyes, he stared in wonder at his hand. Artemis had opened a tiny cut, no bigger than a paper cut. But what was shocking was the color of his blood; not red, not gold, but silver! Similar to Artemis, his wound immediately healed.

"Does that mean I'm immortal?" Percy asked earnestly. In fact, he did not want to live forever, but there were parts which would help in their escape. Like the not-dying thing.

"I don't know," Artemis said, grinning. "We could see."

Percy backed off holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture. "We don't have to try now! We can ask someone who will tell us. Preferably in words, not with a knife."

Artemis laughed at his panicked words. "Relax, I'm not going to test it by stabbing you. The adventure hasn't even started! Instead, I have an idea how we can test it, but that comes later." She grinned maniacally, something that made Percy freak out.

"Okay, let's go!" Percy marched out of the room. Or he would have, if Artemis hadn't grabbed a hold of his hand.

"Where do you think you are going?" Artemis asked.

Percy looked at her quizzically. "To the entrance of the castle, of course." They did not need to pack any supplies, since they had learnt Artemis had the power to summon almost anything.

Artemis looked at him in exasperation. "You can't just walk out! End probably has ordered the guards to keep us in."

"Right. How do we get out then?"

Artemis ginned maniacally for the umpteenth time and gestured to the box of bombs with her knife—or more aptly named "death" by Percy.

Percy paled; he had been doing that many times in the company of the psychopath known as Artemis. "I won't survive that!"

"Remember when I told you I had a test to see if you were immortal?" Artemis asked.

"Yes?" Percy had a sense of trepidation in his stomach.

"Well, this is it." Artemis grinned at him. Before he could react, Artemis had opened the box and stabbed at one of the largely sized explosives. There was enough to blow up half of the gigantic castle. Plus—or minus, if you think about it—there were several other boxes around the room, all of them having lots of explosives tightly packed.

The last thought that went through his mind before the room exploded was this:

Curse you Artemis.